The basic board will be an LED, with a few selections, normal firing modes and adjustments plus some tourney locks.

The OLED will be a drop in. I can say, NO coffeemaker.

And at first, it will be basic-ish. But Levi was handed a big board to put parts onto, and his background is doing about 90% of all that you guys wanted (and is within reason) on a board smaller then a postage stamp. Given time and budget we may do some of those things. Phones interacting with boards over Bluetooth is an eventuality, and I think we might be able to do it.

Deus - have a link or some pics? Would love to see! And, hey, we were talking about a pump... if it close and you want to be involved we can include you.

I unfortunately don't, to my knowledge. I've had sketches and plans for the method, but the most I did was for a build-off here in which I modified a cheap STBB body and swapped the valve out for a system like that.

The intent was to provide a measured amount of gas at a specific pressure, which it did, but it obviously didn't work that great without a reg on it. Not sure I even finished it to involve in the judging.

I scrapped the valve (there wasn't much to it), may still have the sketch buried in a drawer somewhere, and sold off the body after. Someone on this site at the time bought it. I may be able to find that thread, but it was years back.

If you want input, I'll be glad to provide whatever I can, but I didn't pursue the method any further than the prototypes from that contest and whatever drawings or AutoCAD files I may still have kicking around.

Edit: Tracked it down, my plans were for the 2006 custom Spyder build-off. I had plans before then, still have a chunk of Merlin extrusion half-cut for them, but the the prototype body was a Zap ZXS-500. The valve failed to work at the time because the bottom tube had a ding in it.

I'll check later, but kind of doubt I have files and drawings from 7 years ago on hand. I could probably manage the very basics from memory. It was just a matter of cramming it all into the available space, and the result was essentially just a rearranged and kludgy version of this new one.

I had progressed from a pump to a pneumatically-cycled method. The idea was to have the spool with inlet and outlet, so moving the assembly forward would cut off the input just before the output slid into place. And foiled because the donor body had a dent in it.

I almost put my Bob Long Spyder into that competition... it used regulated air to push the piston bacwards from the front of the gun, and a forward bias on the piston to shoot it. 7ms operation, vent to fire, and fairly easy teardown. I did have a spring return system to trap the air, but no cutoff. That was timed it.

Sounds like the design I filed with the patent though. You were on exactly the same path, with Andy and the Husher also.

In all honesty - we did not expect this much. Hope, prayed, dreamed. But sitting here playing in the same ball park as KEE and Planet Eclipse... Feels good that our dreams have (literally) overwhelmingly come true. We have planned well for this day though, so the next couple of months will go as smoothly as they can.

Because you'll have a product before you take people's money. No matter how much all of us want to throw money at you, you have the correct approach and appear to have a much better business plan than many new businesses.

Even better - we won't be taking their money until the gun is actually shipped.

In our setup and plan all the money goes into an escrow account. This is not touchable by us until the product is shipped. Then we get access to that money.

With a 100 gun batch plan, we will take orders for however many markers on preorder, and break them into 100 gun batches in the order they come in. Then each of those is a separate batch or account. So as we ship out each batch we receive that account.

This means we are fronting the money and posing no risk to the customer. If we fail to produce, in a timely manner or otherwise your funds are safe and returned to you.

This, plus we are waiting till the gun is reviewed before letting it go to pre-order. That should insure that the customer knows their product, is wanting to purchase it and they can do so with very little to no risk. That is better then ordering a gun and realizing that the person ordering it doesn't want it after a review.

I think it should be the way the industry does it. Looking at how some companies have failed to do this in the past on start up was a lesson we took to heart. In a way it is like a kickstarter program - except the minimum number has already been paid for, so you know the product will be produced.